Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for theatre, and The Jerome L. Greene Performance Space at WNYC and WQXR, announce the first night of TCG Playwrights in Conversation: Discussions and Readings. In celebration of TCG's 50th anniversary, four events featuring conversations with TCG authors and featured artists will be presented at The Greene Space, WNYC and WQXR's innovative broadcast studio and performance venue.
On October 24, the series launches with New Voices in the American Theatre, bringing together playwrights David Adjmi (Stunning and Other Plays), Young Jean Lee (Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven and Other Plays and The Shipment/LEAR) and Tarell Alvin McCraney (The Brother/Sister Plays) to read and discuss their work with moderator David Cote, Time Out New York's theater editor. The evening will conclude with the playwrights signing copies of their work, and will be available online as a live video webcast at http://www.tcg.org/fifty/playwrights.cfm and at www.thegreenespace.org.
"TCG is dedicated to bringing new literary voices to public attention, and TCG Playwrights in Conversation gives us a chance to hear directly from the playwrights themselves," said Teresa Eyring, executive director of TCG. "The three playwrights of New Voices in the American Theatre each possess a uniquely new and vibrant voice, and we're excited to see what happens when we bring them together in conversation. Our collaboration with The Greene Space will allow us to share this series with a wider audience."
"The Greene Space was built on the ethos of a kind of hothouse for artists and thinkers to cultivate new ways to tell stories -- stories that reflect the exquisite diversity of New York City and to reach audiences across the globe with our live video webcasts," said Indira Etwaroo, Executive Producer, The Greene Space. "We are delighted to celebrate TCG's 50th Anniversary with them by presenting this dynamic and exciting conversation series."
For more information and to purchase tickets for New Voices in the American Theatre on Monday, October 24, 2011 at 7:00 p.m. at The Greene Space (44 Charlton Street, New York, NY 10014), visit: http://www.tcg.org/fifty/playwrights.cfm. Tickets are $20.
David Adjmi's plays have been produced or developed at Sundance, the Public, Lincoln Center Theater, the Royal Court, the RSC, Yale Rep and Woolly Mammoth. His play Marie Antoinette will receive a world premiere in a co-production between Yale Rep and A.R.T./Harvard in 2012. Other upcoming premieres in 2011/12 include 3C (Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre) and Elective Affinities (Soho Rep, piece by piece productions and Rising Phoenix Repertory). David is currently under commission by Lincoln Center Theater, Berkeley Rep, and the Royal Court. He was awarded a 2011 Guggenheim Fellowship, the Whiting Writers' Award, the Kesselring Prize for Drama, the Steinberg Playwright Award (the "Mimi") and the Bush Artists Fellowship, among others. His as-yet-untitled memoir is forthcoming from HarperCollins. David is a member of New Dramatists, MCC Playwrights Coalition and Rising Phoenix Rep. He is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, the Iowa Playwrights Workshop and the Juilliard School.
Young Jean Lee has been called "a rising star" by The New York Times and "one of the best experimental playwrights in America" by Time Out New York. She has written and directed eight shows in New York with Young Jean Lee's Theater Company and toured her work to over twenty cities around the world. Her plays have been published by Theatre Communications Group (Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven and Other Plays, The Shipment and Lear) and by Samuel French (Three Plays by Young Jean Lee). She is currently under commission from Plan B/Paramount Pictures, Lincoln Center Theater, Playwrights Horizons and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. She is a member of New Dramatists and 13P and has an MFA from Mac Wellman's playwriting program at Brooklyn College. She has received grants from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Creative Capital, NYFA, NEA, NYSCA, the Jerome Foundation, the Greenwall Foundation and the Rockefeller MAP Foundation. She is also the recipient of two OBIE Awards, the Festival Prize of the Zuercher Theater Spektakel, a 2010 Prize in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a 2011 Guggenheim Fellowship.
Tarell Alvin McCraney trained at the Yale School of Drama. He is the newest ensemble member at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Chicago; a member of Teo Castellanos/D Projects in Miami and in residence at New Dramatists, New York. His The Brother/Sister Plays form a sequence comprising In the Red and Brown Water (Alliance Theatre, Atlanta; Young Vic, London), The Brothers Size (Studio Theatre, DC; Public Theater, New York, with the Foundry Theatre; Abbey Theatre, Dublin; McCarter Theatre, Princeton; Young Vic with ATC, London) and Marcus; or the Secret of Sweet (premiered in a co-production by McCarter Theatre and The Public Theater). The Brother/Sister Plays have also been staged by Steppenwolf, The American Conservatory Theatre, Seattle Rep, Marin Theatre Company, the Magic Theatre and the Guthrie Theater. His other plays include Wig Out! (presented at the Vineyard Theatre, New York, and the Royal Court, London); Without/Sin, Run Mourner Run and The Breach, written with Catherine Filloux and Joe Sutton. For the Royal Shakespeare Company, he has directed the production of Hamlet in the Young People's Shakespeare season.
In addition to its radio and online programming, WNYC and WQXR engage audiences in person at The Jerome L. Greene Performance Space, the station's street-level, state-of-the-art broadcast studio and performance venue. The Greene Space is host to an exciting and wide ranging line-up, including live broadcasts and tapings of WNYC programs, concerts and festivals from WQXR, audio theater, literary readings, art exhibits, political debates, symposia, and town hall meetings. For more information and a schedule, please visit www.thegreenespace.org.
For 50 years, Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for the American theatre, has existed to strengthen, nurture and promote the professional not-for-profit American theatre. TCG's constituency has grown from a handful of groundbreaking theatres to nearly 700 member theatres and affiliate organizations and more than 13,000 individuals nationwide. TCG offers its members networking and knowledge-building opportunities through conferences, events, research and communications; awards grants, approximately $2 million per year, to theatre companies and individual artists; advocates on the federal level; and serves as the US Center of the International Theatre Institute, connecting its constituents to the global theatre community. TCG is North America's largest independent publisher of dramatic literature, with 11 Pulitzer Prizes for Best Play on the TCG booklist. It also publishes the award-winning AMERICAN THEATRE magazine and ARTSEARCH®, the essential source for a career in the arts. In all of its endeavors, TCG seeks to increase the organizational efficiency of its member theatres, cultivate and celebrate the artistic talent and achievements of the field and promote a larger public understanding of, and appreciation for, the theatre. For more information, visit www.tcg.org.
